The current official poverty measure was developed in the early 1960s and only a few minor changes have been implemented since it was first adopted in 1965. The poverty threshold represents the cost of a minimum food diet in 1963 multiplied by three to allow for expenditures on other goods and services. It is updated annually based on the consumer price index to account for inflation. Family resources are defined as before-tax money income.
Sarah Bowen
Associate Professor of Sociology
Sarah Bowen is an Associate Professor of Sociology at North Carolina State University. Her research focuses on food and inequality in a variety of contexts. She is director of Voices into Action: The Families, Food, and Health Project. Voices into Action is a longitudinal (2011-2016) research and participatory outreach project that follows 124 working-class and poor families in North Carolina over a five-year period. The interdisciplinary team has conducted multiple semi-structured interviews, 24-hour food recalls, and ethnographic observations with mothers in these families, in order to better understand the complex social and cultural factors that influence families’ beliefs and practices related to food. These team has also organized asset-mapping workshops, facilitated community-based action groups, and funded mini-grants to facilitate policy and environmental changes to improve access to healthy and affordable food.
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North Carolina State University
Raleigh, NC
United States